It wasn't pretty, Rafa ...

... so I've pictured last night's sunset.

OK ... before I get too carried away, lets have some words. I only managed to watch the first set and was a bit shocked that Rafa was the first to be broken, but as he broke straight back and got another break to win the first set, I wasn't to unduly worried. I didn't think it was good stuff. Sure, the USO serve of last appeared a few times with him registering over 130 mph, there was the odd vintage Rafa shot, but mostly, it was that negative play again. I just didn't understand why he stood even further back when he was facing second serves, so he wasn't being the aggressor or taking it to his opponent - who was Andrey Golubev by the way, the no. 98 in the world and I've failed to mention - so he was the passive player whilst Golubev tried (and succeeded on several occasions)to hit through him ... and all Rafa was doing was waiting for the error. But he took the first set 6-3 and I went to bed.

Rafan had some sleep and got up to watch it, so the next words are hers on how she saw the match ...

And I have to say - poor! His serve was broken so many times! Bearing in mind that straight after the match on Sky they started re-running highlights of last year's final and one of the first things they mentioned was that Rafa's serve had only been broken three times during the whole tournament up to the final. Well, you can double that on last night's performance alone.

Golubev was the aggressor, and went for his shots - of course as he's No 98 in the world that didn't always pay off, as you can see if you check the unforced error counts. He often had Rafa scrabbling along the baseline though - well behind the baseline I should say as once again Rafa was playing by the backboard too often.

Golubev also choked away both the second and third sets - on both occasions he was up 5-2! In the second set Rafa saved 7 set points (2 on his own serve) and got it back to 6-5 and served for the set, only to lose his serve (yet again) but won an easy tie-breaker. In the third he played totally pants and Golubev got the double break but once again lost his nerve and with the occasional brilliant shot from Rafa went down 7-5.

I saw nothing in Rafa's performance which would strike fear into any of the higher ranked players - well apart from Feds. I know Rafa generally starts slow - but he needs to improve considerably. I don't see Mahut being quite so tough though but after that could be Looby or Nalbandian.

And then you'll know you've been in match, Rafa. Come on ... get it together.